The 1200 class was introduced in 1953. They were built at the Vulcan Foundry in the UK by English Electric and then imported to Australia. They were the only full width body loco used in Queensland.

The class were allocated to Mayne in Brisbane, and were worked from this yard their entire career. They were found hauling the ‘Sunlander’ and the ‘Sunshine Express’ trains between Brisbane and Cairns, but could also be found on the ‘Westlander’ between Brisbane and Roma.

A characteristic addition to the 1200 and 1250 class locomotives was a sun visor to help reduce glare 8 years after their construction in 1961.

By 1976, the last 1200 class turned a wheel in service.

1200 has been preserved in non-working order by the Australian Railway Historical Society Qld Division, and is currently stored at Redbank Workshops out in the open. It is thought this locomotive will require a replacement engine to be able to turn a wheel again.

1225 Notes

In 1984, 1208 was rebuilt into 1225. The rebuild used parts from 1252 and 1253, while the body was change to resemble a 1250 class loco. It earned the nickname ‘Hybrid’ after this work. 1225 remained in service until 1987, working mainly on the Wallangarra line. The loco is now privately owned, and is currently under active restoration by the Queensland Diesel Group. It will be moved to Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway at Swanbank for these works in mid-2010.

Notes

These engines were originally referred to as Small Consolations and later as C13 (Dubs) to distinguish them from the C13 engines built by Baldwin.

They were acquired for use on the Bundaberg and Maryborough Railways. Although based on the American designed 2-8-0, they were obtained from a British manufacturer to comply with government policy of the time. They were original built with diamond shaped chimneys, shallow fireboxes and short smokeboxes.

There were complaints that when the Bundaberg engines entered service they were pushing curves out of alignment on the Mount Perry Railway. This is not surprising as most of the line still consisted of 30lb rail as relaying with 41¼lb material had only recently commenced

The class was modified in 1904-05 with a raised boiler with deep firebox and extended smokebox. This improved their performance and gave them an appearance similar to the B13 Class.

In 1889 locomotives and rollingstock were consolidated into one rollingstock register. This resulted in most items, except those operating on the original Southern and Western Railway (from Ipswich), being renumbered. Numbers shown are state (or former S & W) numbers. Those in brackets are former numbers of individual railways.

Abbreviations

MR – Maryborough Railway
BR – Bundaberg Railway based on (North) Bundaberg
Dubs – Dubs & Co, Glasgow

Notes

The initial plan had been to use these engines on the proposed air-conditioned Mail Trains that were being designed at the time. This never eventuated, although they did regularly haul the “Midlander”, mainly between Emerald and Bogantungan for some years. They were used on the Rockhampton Mail and Sunshine Express in the early 1950s.

The first ten engines were constructed at Beyer Peacock & Co Limited Works in Manchester UK. Owing to the number of orders they had on hand, Beyer Peacock (BP) contracted Societe Franco Belge de Materiel du Chemins de fer, Raismes, France (FRB)to build the remaining twenty.

They were painted Midland red and had chrome yellow lining with large QR monograms on the sides of the front tank and bunker. Unfortunately this attractive livery easily discoloured particularly as a result of priming. The engines were not regularly cleaned when relegated to goods train working in latter years and their appearance rapidly deteriorated.

Originally trialled on the Brisbane – Toowoomba route, they were soon withdrawn from this section due to problems with limited clearances in the tunnels. They were used extensively on North Coast Line between Brisbane and Rockhampton. By 1956, this working had become restricted to mainly north of Bundaberg. They did not work north of St Lawrence on the NCL. On the Central Line they initially ran between Rockhampton and Emerald but from 1957 this was extended to Bogantungan.

A few were attached to Mayne until 1955 and some at North Bundaberg until 1956, when all were allocated to Rockhampton. In later years they worked Moura coal trains via Mount Morgan, prior to the opening of the ‘short line’ to Gladstone. One of their last regular tasks was on limestone trains between Tarcoola and Gladstone. Increasing numbers of diesels saw mass withdrawals of these engines. Twenty two were written off in June 1968.

They were subject to much positive publicity when introduced but failed to live up to all expectations. They were attributed with saving 19,500 miles of assistant and goods engine running on the Bundaberg – Rockhampton – Emerald sections between October 1950 and June 1951. Steaming difficulties were encountered with South Queensland coals; however they performed well on Blair Athol coal. The boilers had a tendency to prime. Limited coal and water capacity caused worries. General overhauls cost about three times those for a B18¼.

They had a number of unique features (for QR steam engines) including Ajax air operated butterfly fire doors, Hadfield power reversers, speedometers and also flow meters; the latter being fitted to the class in 1955.The outer bogies and inner trucks had roller bearings but the coupled axles has plain bearings. Several engines received fabricated stove pipe chimneys to replace the original cast ones that had been damaged.

N°1009, preserved as a static exhibit, was taken into Ipswich Workshops in 1993 and restored to working order. Subsequently due to a leaking fused plug, it has been out of service for quite some time.

* Test weighing proved some engines to be 11 tons over this design weight with 11TAL